Integration, not balance, key to enjoying life and work

You’ve seen it at parks and gymnastics meets. You’ve been dazzled by it at the circus. But if you’ve ever tried walking along a slack line, balance beam or tight rope, you know it takes concentration, control and lots of practice to remain steady and not fall. For many of us, finding balance feels precarious and easily disrupted with the slightest misstep or shift in the wind.

What does this mean for the commonly used phrase work-life balance? Books and workshops encourage us to seek balance between work and personal life. Many recent columns have offered such advice to those working from home in the midst of a pandemic. Is it possible, though, we’re setting ourselves up for failure by shooting for such a tenuous goal? A goal that pits work and life against each other as though they’re enemies? A goal that reminds us if we take one too many personal calls while on the clock or answer an e-mail in the evening, we’re disrupting the fragile balance and forfeiting our happiness?

Rather than struggle to balance work and life, what if we considered instead the life of a farmer and integrate it all?

This is how most of us naturally operate. Whether working at home or onsite, we pack to our workspaces the lingering stress from an argument with our partner and lug home to our personal lives the disappointment of not getting that promotion. We gather the energy born of a good night’s sleep and share it with co-workers at the morning Zoom meeting. We collect meaningful experiences at work and use them to build a sense of purpose. We capture
ah-ha moments in the shower and insights on breaks that lead to innovations that transform our organizations. Back and forth we go, the same humans with the same thoughts, feelings and needs whether we’re working or engaged in personal pursuits.

Employers that account for the way work and life weave together can foster integration and, as a result, increase productivity, reduce turnover and improve morale.

One way to begin is to create more space for life in the context of work. Rather than treating breaks, vacations and personal pursuits as distractions, employers should encourage these practices to increase creativity. Rather than insisting employees simply trade their time for money, bosses should help employees set meaningful goals that resonate deeply and allow for flexibility as to how they’re completed. Rather than dismissing the realities of family life, especially during a pandemic, employers should implement policies that allow team members to adequately attend to loved ones’ needs. Rather than relying on employees to manage their physical and mental health outside of work, employers should provide expert health coaching, offer employee assistance programs, encourage exercise during paid time and implement structured wellness programs. Everyone wins when employees feel cared for and supported at work rather than disconnected and eager to bolt at the end of the day.

Along with infusing more life into work, many employees are comfortable with more work flowing into life, especially if it’s done on their terms. A father might be happy to answer e-mails at 9 p.m. if it means he can help his kids with schoolwork in the afternoon. A wife might be happy to conduct business remotely if it means she can occasionally go on a spontaneous day hike with her spouse. A man might wake up at the crack of dawn with a brilliant idea and choose to dig right in rather than wait for traditional business hours to begin. A woman might review reports while exercising. Shift workers might agree to remain on call or take on extra hours if they’re paid a wage that allows them to buy fresh food, take vacations and save for retirement.

By ditching the word balance in favor of integration, some might argue there’s no real difference. That it’s just semantics. But words matter. They produce mental pictures, shift our mindsets and evoke emotions that influence how we feel and what we do. Balancing acts are for the circus. In our lives, they’re exhausting. Integration is connection. It creates flow. It also helps us to better acknowledge the reality of a world in which hard lines between work and life no longer exist.

By aiming for work-life integration, we can improve our lives on both ends of the spectrum, better support employees in their wholeness and, as a result, watch our companies thrive.

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About Rebecca Weitzel

Rebecca Weitzel is president and co-founder of Good Life Wellness Solutions, which provides affordable and easy to implement workplace well-being solutions, an online platform, consulting and education services tailored to small businesses. Contact Weitzel at (970) 216-6390 or rebecca@goodlifewellnesssolutions.com or visit the website at www.GoodLifeWellnessSolutions.com.